Fronleichnam

Thursday last week was Corpus Christi, a feast of the Roman Catholic Church giving thanks for the sacrament of Holy Communion. In Germany and Austria it is marked by processions in traditional costume (Tracht) - in some places the processions are on water and, in the Brixen valley, on horse back.

I have often managed to be in Austria at the time of these processions - unfortunately the last time was two years ago. Fronleichnam (Corpus Christi) ist ein Fest zur Verehrung des Heiligen Abendmahls und wird am zweiten Donnerstag nach Pfingsten mit Prozessionen begangen. 2008 sah ich die Prozession in St. Johann in Tirol. Es gab viele schöne Trachten.

Mehr von meiner Bildern http://picasaweb.google.com/jeckyllandhyde1/Fronleichnam

Fronleichnam in Wikipedia http://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fronleichnam

Der Brixentaler Antlassritt ist eine Prozession zu Pferd am Fronleichnamstag.


Antlassritt in Wikipedia http://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Antlassritt

Bilder von Antlassritt http://www.stjosef.at/kirchberg/antlassritt.htm

Melanchthon

I'm not certain whether many readers of this blog will know the name Melanchthon. He was an important figure during the Reformation who died 50 years ago.

Der Reformator Philipp Melanchthon (1497-1560) war ein enger Freund und Mitstreiter von Martin Luther (1483-1546).

You'll find a little more under the heading Festakt zum 450. Todestag von Melanchthon on ZeitOnline. If you search for Melanchthon on ZeitOnline you'll find 127 Ergebnisse so he's obviously been in the news quite a lot over the last few years.

Now a puzzle for you. What was Melanchthon's real name?

Putting our own house in order

We often speak of the need to put our own house in order and there is a very similar expression in German as you can see from this quote from sueddeutsche.de

Die Kirche solle jetzt "nicht mit dem Finger auf andere zeigen, sondern wir sollen unser eigenes Haus in Ordnung bringen, und dann können es andere auch tun"

This extract comes from a report  about what the Bishop of Regensburg is supposed to have said in a sermon at the weekend in connection with the child abuse scandal that has been deeply disturbing news for the German public and for the Roman Catholic Church. Over the years churches, regardless of denomination, have had to face unwelcome truths about their failures to safeguard children in the past. The procedures now in place will hopefully reduce abuse but the responses to revelations or allegations about what has happened in the past are still too often hedged about with defensiveness that suggests not all church leaders are committed to the openness that is needed to really change their internal culture. When they really don't 'get it' then it must be all too easy to see public and press opinion as eine Kampagne gegen die Kirche 

The wrong trousers and old clothes

What do you do with your old clothes? I guess many of us take them to charity shops if they're in a reasonable condition. I'm not certain there's an equivalent in Germany so let me know if I'm mistaken.

I did come across something about collecting clothing on a German church website

Was tun, wenn die Hosen nicht mehr passen oder einfach nicht mehr modisch sind. Bloß nicht wegwerfen, sagt Bettina Körtge vom Diakonischen Werk Jerichower Land. Tragbare Kleidung nimmt die Diakonie in Burg gerne

Burg is a town in Sachsen-Anhalt. There's an audio report accompanying the piece so take a look at http://www.ekmd.de/aktuellpresse/nachrichten/20018.html and learn German words about to do with helping the needy - Bedürftige